The present invention relates to a system and a method for displaying recording reservations for broadcast television programs on a home network.
Home network systems in which a plurality of television receivers or a plurality of computers (reservation clients) are connected to a single recording device (recording server) are increasingly used in homes. An example of such a home network system is shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1 the recording device 1 is a recording server connected to television receivers X, Y, Z. Each of the television receivers X, Y, Z is a reservation client with a program recording reservation function.
Various methods of selecting the program to be recorded when programming a particular program for recording (“program selection method”) are known from the literature. These include the following four common types.
(1) Direct channel (direct manual)
(2) Direct CDS EPG
(3) Direct CDS NONEPG
(4) Direct program code
The first method, (1) direct channel (direct manual), uniquely specifies the program to be recorded by the recording client by specifying information that uniquely identifies the channel, such as the channel tuning number, the recording start time, and the recording time (how long recording is to continue).
When the recording server has a function for presenting electronic program guide (EPG) information based on the DLNA guidelines by program unit, the second method, (2) direct CDS EPG, can be used to uniquely specify the program to be recorded using the program identification information (CDS Item ID) of the desired program by causing the reservation client to search for the CDS Item ID of the desired program using the content search command (“CDS:Browse command” below) of the Content Directory Service (CDS), which is defined according to the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) guidelines.
When the recording server has a function for presenting electronic program guide (EPG) information based on the DLNA guidelines by channel unit, the third method, (3) Direct CDS NONEPG, can be used to uniquely specify the program to be recorded by causing the reservation client to search for the virtual channel ID (CDS Item ID) of the broadcasting station that broadcasts the program to be recorded using the CDS:Browse command, and specifying the virtual channel ID (CDS Item ID), recording start time, and recording time.
When a third-party organization assigns a unique ID to each program and publishes these ID numbers in a newspaper, magazine, or other forum, the fourth method, (4) direct program code, can be used to uniquely identify the program to be recorded by the reservation client specifying the unique program ID number (Program Code) of the desired program.
In this example television receiver X has the first reservation function (1) described above, television receiver Y has reservation functions (1) and (2), and television receiver Z has reservation functions (1) and (3). The recording device enables programming recording reservations using methods (1), (2), and (3).
It is also assumed that the user has reserved recording a morning news program on television receiver X using method (1), has reserved recording a Japanese cooking program on television receiver Y using method (2), and has reserved recording a golfing lesson program on television receiver Z using method (3). Reservation information for these three programs is sent to and received by the recording device 1. More specifically, the reservation clients, that is, television receivers X, Y, Z, send an SRS (Scheduled Recording Service) reservation command (SRS:CreateRecordSchedule) conforming to DLNA guidelines to the recording device 1 using a protocol defined in SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). As a response to the SRS reservation command, the recording device 1 sends a reservation ID and recording reservation completion information including recording address information to the corresponding reservation client, and executes the reserved recording when the reservation time arrives.
When the user tries to view a list of all recording reservations received by the recording device 1 on the screen of television receiver X, a list of all recording reservations can be seen by the television receiver X creating and sending an SRS reservation list acquisition command to the recording device 1 using the SOAP protocol, receiving a recording reservation list in response, and displaying the received recording reservation list. Normally, however, the program reservation information in the reservation list is returned in the form of the information that is specified in reservation methods (1), (2), and (3) above when the recording is programmed by television receivers X, Y, Z. Therefore, because television receiver X only has reservation function (1), only the program information that is reserved using reservation function (1) can be viewed. As a result, the recording reservation for the morning news show that was reserved by television receiver X can be confirmed, but the reservations for the Japanese cooking show and the golf lesson program cannot be confirmed (FIG. 2A).
Likewise, if the user tries to view a list of all recording reservations received by the recording device 1 on the screen of television receiver Y, only the information for the morning news show and the Japanese cooking program that were reserved using reservation functions (1) and (2) can be seen because television receiver Y only has recording reservation functions (1) and (2) (FIG. 2B).
Further likewise, if the user tries to view a list of all recording reservations received by the recording device 1 on the screen of television receiver Z, only the information for the morning news show and the golf lesson program that were reserved using reservation functions (1) and (3) can be seen because television receiver Z only has recording reservation functions (1) and (3) (FIG. 2C).
See, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. JPA-2005-244372.
As described above, because the program selection methods that each reservation client can use or understand differ according to the model, a television receiver that is compatible only with particular program selection methods cannot view all of the reservation information issued by television receivers X, Y, Z that are compatible with different program selection methods.